


time hands, takes

by 21hax



Category: In the Flesh (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-30
Updated: 2014-08-03
Packaged: 2018-02-11 02:43:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2050503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/21hax/pseuds/21hax
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which directly after the events of series two, Kieren and Simon deal with being branded ULA traitors, Kieren coming alive again, and the treatment centre's ulterior motives.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Ever since Amy's funeral, Kieren's been spending a lot of his time at her bungalow, both with Simon and without. It's a little morbid, spending so much time in the house of a woman twice dead. Once, he even went into her room, flopped down on her bed, and breathed in deeply against her pillow. It smelled like her, but not like her. It smelled like life and death and perfume and musk. It was weird and if Kieren could still cry, he would've cried, but instead he just sort of screwed up his face and made strangled noises.

So instead he sticks to the room that became Simon's when he first came to Roarton. The charges on him and Simon for breaking into the GP surgery were dropped, probably mostly out of fear and guilt from the council, so he's left with plenty of time to mull over the events of the last few days. So he does a lot of moping. He knows Amy wouldn't've wanted it, and he knows Simon doesn't want it. He can't help it. Amy was this amazing beacon of sunshine and happiness, brighter than any fully living human he'd ever known in his whole life, let alone a partially deceased one. She taught him a lot of things about himself and how to be grateful for his second chance at life.

Lying on Simon's bed under the duvet, wrapped up and feeling like a burrito, Kieren hears the front door opening and the scuffling of feet. He doesn't want Simon to come home to him moping again, so he slowly gets up from the bed and shuffles into the hall where he's met with the sight of that blonde ULA extremist, Zoe, and a few other ULA members behind her.

"You!" she says vehemently, looking surprised to see him, though her voice quickly fills with venom as she points shakily at him. "You were supposed to die!"

Confusion making its way all over Kieren's face, he backs up slowly as Zoe approaches him. "The Undead Prophet told me all about it! You should have been sacrificed for the second rising, but you _ruined_ it! It was an _honour_ , and you threw it away!"

She lunges at him and he stumbles backwards as her hands clamp around his neck. "You manipulated the twelfth disciple, and now neither of you can be trusted!"

He's not sure what she expects to accomplish by choking him when they don't really need to breathe, but he's not about to point it out and redirect her efforts to something more harmful. He grabs her wrists and half-heartedly attempts to pull her off him.

"I dunno what you're—" he starts to say, but he steps backwards again and trips up on something, cutting him off as he falls flat on his back, accidentally bringing Zoe with him. She lands on him, sandwiching him between her and the floor and crushing all the air out of his lungs. He tries to say something more but all he can do is sputter, since even without needing air to live, he still needs it to talk. He squirms out from under her and tries to get up and make a break for the back door, but two other ULA members flank him in no time and grab his arms to restrain him. He struggles violently against their grip, starting to panic properly.

As Zoe gets back up on her feet, she stumbles and grabs onto one of the other ULA members, catching him off guard. Kieren takes the opportunity to rip his arm out of his grip, breaking the other man's grip as well in the confusion, and he bolts past Zoe and out the front door.

He clumsily sprints down the street, turns onto a new one and sprints some more. He doesn't really think they would follow him. It seemed to Kieren more like an incidental expression of fury, more than Zoe actually having meant to have sought him out. His mind reels with the absolute absurdity of it. Does no one in this town not have some crackpot theory about the second rising?

After a while his awkward running slows down to a fast walk. He hasn't really thought about where he was going, just about getting far away, but now he finds himself close to the new cemetery so he decides to make the rest of the way there.

Approaching it, he slows down and creeps in carefully, looking around for any other visitors and seeing none. He walks up to Rick's grave and looks down at where the skinny white cross meets the earth.

"Hey, Rick," he says quietly, his eyes flicking to the photograph propped up there. He sits down cross-legged in front of it. "Things are so different from the last time I visited you, you don't even know. Or...maybe you do."

He glances at the cloudy heavens above. "Are you up there? I dunno what to think about heaven or hell or any of that anymore since...what happened to us," he looks back down at Rick's picture. "We didn't go to anywhere like that when we died the first time. Where have you gone now, after dying for a second time?"

Where has Rick gone, or Amy, or even Henry Lonsdale?

"The Big Sleep," Kieren whispers with a laugh. "That's what Amy called it. She said we don't have to worry about that anymore. But obviously we still do. We may not have...starvation or blood loss or...cancer to worry about anymore, but now we have predators." Kieren's jaw clenches. "And all it takes is a knife through the back of the head to end it."

Or, apparently, several stabs to the heart. Kieren still doesn't really understand the logic behind Amy's cause of death. Little is yet known scientifically about PDS sufferers, and people still make tons of assumptions based on what they've seen in zombie movies. Even Kieren, with little else to go on, easily subscribed to the notion that only a brainstem-severing wound could kill them. It's too bad it isn't true, then Maxine Martin would've felt like a right fool trying to kill a PDS sufferer like she did, and Amy'd still be here, and they'd probably be at her bungalow having a laugh over it right now.

Kieren draws his knees up to his chest and wraps his arms around them, squeezing tight. He stares at Rick's picture and lets his mind wander to various old memories of the times they used to share. It all seems so distant and fuzzy, like an old movie he used to love, but can't really remember how it turned out anymore. There was a time when Rick was the biggest thing in Kieren's life and he couldn't imagine it any other way. There was a time when Kieren would lay on his bed and stare dreamily up at the ceiling and recount every last word of the conversation he had with Rick that day. There was a time when drawings of Rick littered nearly every page of Kieren's sketchbook, when he spent hours painstakingly going through every song he knew to craft the perfect mixtape for him, when his heart would pound furiously against his rib cage just at the very thought of holding hands with him, when he could sit right up against him, hug him, hold him, lie on top of him or under him and he still didn't feel close enough to him.

"I miss you, Rick," Kieren whispers into his knees. "But I don't _need_ you anymore."

He hears the crunch of leaves underfoot behind him and whips around to see who's coming. He sees Simon quickly approaching the entrance to the cemetery and looking right at him. Kieren climbs to his feet and brushes the dirt off his trousers before walking the rest of the way to Simon.

"What're you doing here?" Kieren asks.

"Thought you might be here," Simon says, looking really relieved to see him. "Just been round to the bungalow and it's been completely trashed."

"Shit," Kieren sighs, running a hand through his hair. "It was Zoe, had to be. I was just there and she and a few other ULA guys came round and tried to strangle me. Fat lot of good that did, but I got the hell out of there anyway."

Simon's eyebrows furrow in angry bewilderment. "She what? Kieren, what did she say to you?"

"She was spouting something about how I should've been sacrificed for the second rising," Kieren says with a note of sad humour. "How it was an _honour_. She looked completely mental, I'd never seen her like that before."

Simon clears his throat and looks away.

"She mentioned the twelfth disciple but I couldn't remember what number you are. It _is_ the twelfth, innit?"

"Was," Simon corrects, eyes snapping back to him. "What else did she say?"

Kieren looks at him curiously. "Look, just because I'm not a huge fan of the whole cult-y business—"

"No — Kieren," Simon steps close to him. "What did she say about me?"

Kieren starts to grow concerned. "She said I...manipulated you. And that neither of us can be trusted anymore. What's she on about, Simon?"

Simon steps back again and runs his hands through his hair as he wanders in circles, taking a few deep breaths.

"Simon?"

"Look, there's...something I need to tell you. And I, I don't..." he glances up at Kieren, looking uncomfortable. "I really don't want to tell you. But you deserve to know the truth."

Kieren's concern rising, he reaches out and puts a hand on his arm to try and comfort him. "Simon...what is it? You can tell me anything, it's fine."

"I..." Simon glances around, trying to organize his next words. "None of that stuff is news to me, and it's not just nonsense from Zoe. The Prophet, he...he gave me a mission. To kill you. That's why I was at the graveyard that day — I was meant to do it, the twelfth hour of the twelfth day."

Kieren stares at him, shell-shocked. He'd just assumed it was more of this inane second rising business that had grown too many fabrications to keep up with. Like the way Maxine Martin killed Amy and it made no sense and did absolutely nothing. He hadn't stopped to consider any of it was based on something Simon knew about and was planning for.

"Wh...why me?" Kieren asks incredulously.

"Because you were the first risen," Simon says, still sounding amazed at Kieren about it. "You...that time I went to yours for lunch, and you told the story of when you rose. You said there was no one else around."

Kieren looks at Simon like he's grown a second head. "I wasn't even _looking_ at—" Kieren scoffs. "So it's been since then, has it? I finally started to feel like I could trust you, and you were just plotting how to kill me the whole time?"

"No! Kieren, I didn't know then," he reaches out and grabs Kieren's shoulders. Kieren doesn't shrug him off or try to push him away, just glances down at it and glares at him, and Simon takes the hint and drops his hands. "I had no idea then. I just knew that the Prophet wanted me to find the first risen, I didn't know he'd—I just thought the first risen would be special, be someone who could help lead us, or have some answers about something. Someone that the Prophet needed to work with somehow."

Kieren shakes his head and turns away from Simon, looking out at the grassy hills stretched out in front of him. His pulls his hands out of his pockets and plays with the zipper on his hoodie, zipping it up and down. Simon waits, patient and still behind him.

"When did you learn? About your _mission_ ," Kieren spits out.

"The night I went to the city," Simon replies.

Kieren scoffs. Remains turned away from Simon, and is glad he stays there. He doesn't want to look at him when he hears the next answer.

"For how long a time did you spend...resolved to kill me?"

"Not for a _second_ ," Simon replies instantly. "Listen, Kieren — could you — could you just please look at me?"

Kieren turns just his head and catches sight of Simon's face — utterly broken looking. Kieren swallows and turns around to face him again. Simon hesitantly reaches out for Kieren's hand, and Kieren holds it out a short distance, silently giving him the okay. Simon takes his hand in both of his, and holds it close to his chest. "Kieren," he says, sounding like a plea. "You don't know how terrified I was when I got my mission. The entire time, it was a battle between what I was supposed to do, and what I wanted to do. What I wanted was..." he swallows and looks away, readjusts his stance, then looks back. "Was to keep you all to myself for the rest of eternity. I kept expecting my faith for the Prophet to, I dunno, kick in and take over, but it never did."

He takes one hand away from Kieren's and reaches up to touch Kieren's cheek, his thumb ghosting over the top of his cheekbone. "I never, not for a second, became a man who decided he could harm even a single hair on your head."

Kieren looks down, trying to fight off a smile at his kind words. He supposes he couldn't help what kind of mission the Prophet gave him. He should have told Kieren more about what'd been going on the whole time, but ultimately he _did_ end up saving his life instead of ending it. Kieren leans forward and gives Simon a quick peck on the lips before breaking out of his grip and heading down the path out of the cemetery. Simon stares after him for a moment before catching up.

"So how did you even know I was at the graveyard, anyway?" Kieren asks as he walks, hands dug in his pockets.

"Well..." Simon stays a step or two behind Kieren. "I went to yours. I was gonna talk to you or something, I dunno. Then I saw Gary take you and drive away so I tailed him."

Kieren looks back at him with raised eyebrows. "You watched Gary drag me out of my house with my wrists in a zip tie and bodily force me into his truck, and you didn't do nothing to stop it?"

"Well, I was—I was still struggling with—"

Kieren rolls his eyes and faces forward again. Simon looks at the ground and continues, "I didn't know what to do. I was thinking about—"

He cuts himself off when suddenly they hear someone calling out behind them.

"Excuse me! Wait!"

Both of them turn around to look and see Philip running towards them, looking awkward in a suit and carrying a briefcase. 

"Look, we'll talk about this later, yeah?" Kieren says firmly, putting a hand on his back, meaning they really will talk about it later, but it's fine for now. Simon nods.

When Philip catches up to them, he puts his hands on his knees and pants for a moment. "I've been...looking for you."

"Which one?" Simon asks curtly.

Philip stands upright and looks between the two of them. "Either of you. It's Amy."

Kieren looks bewildered. "What?"

"Her grave," Philip clarifies. "It's been...disturbed. The dirt looks different — I mean, I sat out there for hours, I should know, and the tiger — that stuffed tiger is gone, I left it there but now it's gone!"

Kieren and Simon exchange looks. Kieren starts to say, "You don't think she...?"

"She didn't rise again," Philip says, already knowing what he was thinking. "All the old graves from the rising, they've all got these holes down to their coffins cause they had to come out, right?"

Kieren flinches and tries not to remember that journey through the earth up to the surface.

"But hers doesn't have that. It looks like someone dug her back up and tried to rebury her."

Philip looks at them desperately as if clarity will dawn on them and they'll have all the answers for him.

"Well," Kieren starts slowly. "I mean, it's not like she was buried with anything worth stealing."

Philip swallows hard, and his voice is full of dread. "You don't think..."

Simon looks between the two of them, his racing thoughts showing through in the intensity of his gaze. "If she were the first risen, there's gonna be people out there who want to do experiments."

The corners of Philip's mouth twitch downwards. "Look, there's..." He looks around the street like a fidgety animal looking for both threats and escape routes. "There's something I should tell you two. Maybe somewhere...more private."

Kieren and Simon glance at each other again.

"Didn't you go to her bungalow a lot?" Philip asks. "That'd be—"

"The bungalow's not safe right now," Simon says quickly. "You got somewhere?"

Philip looks nervously between them, wanting to ask about it, but deciding it's not the time. "Well...my mum should be out until later. We could just go there."

They head to Philip's in a tense silence, Philip leading the way a few steps in front of the others. Kieren glances at Simon and sees the stormy expression on his face, and he grabs Simon's wrist to try and comfort him. Simon looks at him and gives a quick smile.

They get to Philip's and he leads them inside. He gestures to the table there and Kieren and Simon sit on one side. Philip shuffles into the kitchen and comes back out not much later with a cup of tea for the two of them, then back again with one for him.

"Thanks, Phil," Kieren says lightly, taking a sip.

Philip stares at them, going back and forth. Kieren clears his throat uncomfortably, gently trying to prompt him into saying something.

"Your eyes..." Philip says mistily.

"Look, if you've got a problem with—" Simon starts to say, but Philip quickly shakes his head.

"No, no! I don't, I swear. It just..." He ducks his head, looking down at his tea that he grasps with both hands. "Reminds me of Amy's..."

Simon heaves a sigh and crosses his arms. Kieren nudges him with his elbow to try and silently tell him to lighten up.

"Right, so," Philip takes a sip as he collects his thoughts. "Something was...happening to Amy before she..." He swallows and presses his lips together, shaking his head slightly like he still can't believe it. "Something that we decided to keep quiet."

Kieren and Simon remain silent and give him the time he needs to let it out.

"She said that it started with...shaking, and nosebleeds."

Kieren freezes. He hasn't told Simon yet about the few times he's caught his hands shaking for no reason.

"Shaking?" Kieren asks, forcing the apprehension out of his voice.

"Her hands," Philip said.

Kieren looks down at his tea.

"Then she started having problems with her memory. I didn't really notice this stuff, she just told me about it after she—well, okay, so that night, she takes me out to this tent in the middle of a field and tells me she's about to go rabid, and that she wants me to kill her before she does. So I'm—I'm freaking out inside, but I'm gonna do it, because I...I think I love her, and it's what she wants. But then suddenly she tells me to wait, she says she can feel the rain on her face. At first I didn't think about what that meant, but she just sounded so happy and she told me she's not going rabid. That she could feel again. She was coming back alive again."

Kieren stares at Philip in utter shock. "Coming...alive?"

Philip nods. "It's true. She said she felt cold outside. And at the fete, she even ate a toffee apple. She said she were thinking the medicine had stopped working on her, but really she just didn't need it any more. And then later, we went to visit her Nan's grave. That's where...Ms Martin..."

Philip looks away. He takes a sip and then continues. "Right before she came up to us, Amy told me she felt her heart beating again."

These words blow through Kieren like a hurricane. Not only does it add a new, bone deep layer of tragedy to Amy's death, but it informs him of what might start happening to him and he has no idea how to feel about it.

Simon stands up, scraping his chair away from the table loudly. Kieren jumps at the sound of it and looks up to watch him pace around the room, both his hands running through his hair and disheveling it.

Suddenly, they hear the front door open and close. "I'm home!" they hear Shirley's voice call. She soon walks into the room and sees them. "Oh, hello, boys," she says warmly.

Philip stands abruptly. "Mum!" he says, and looks at Kieren, looking as though he's trying to communicate something silently with his eyes. Kieren figures it's probably to not tell Shirley about what they were talking about.

Simon, who stopped pacing the moment she walked through the door, stares at her, his hands dropping to his sides.

"Kieren, Simon," she greets them politely.

"Hi, Mrs Wilson," Kieren returns.

"Oh, please, call me Shirley! We're not at the surgery, love. And even then, it's all the same to me, really," she says with a smile as she heads to the kitchen. "Can I get you boys another cuppa?"

Kieren looks down at his half-empty cup. "I think we're fine. We were just leaving."

Simon looks at Kieren. Kieren ignores him and stands up. "Thanks for the chat, Phil."

"Yeah," Philip says. "Okay. Right."

Kieren nods his head towards the door to encourage Philip to follow him. He does, along with Simon, as they all go outside and crowd together on the doorstep.

"We'll try to figure something out," Kieren tells Philip, trying to sound reassuring.

"Yeah," Philip says again. "Thanks."

Kieren gives him a tight smile and claps him on the shoulder before turning and walking down the street. Simon bounds after him. They walk for a while in silence before Simon finally pipes up.

"She was coming alive," he says, quietly and deadly serious.

"Yeah..." Kieren lets out in a rush of air. "What does that mean?"

Simon looks at Kieren. Kieren looks back. They're mirrors of each other — confusion, fear, anger, and a hint of hope.

Kieren wants to keep his shaking hands to himself for now. He's not even sure it means he's starting to go through what Amy did, and he doesn't want to give Simon any false hope.

Simon laughs in disbelief and looks away. "I dunno."


	2. Chapter 2

In the morning, Kieren lies in his bed and stares at the ceiling, thinking. Yesterday he got a lot of new information to digest and think about. What happened to Amy, and what could be happening to Kieren. Simon's mission, and the ULA's new feelings towards them. Kieren reckons the ULA members ought to be moving away from Roarton since they didn't get their second rising and their precious disciple is no longer. Things are sure to settle down here soon.

Kieren gets up and out of bed, checking his reflection quickly in one of his mirrors. Pinprick eyes looking back at him, he gives a twitch of a smile. It's nice not to have to go through the exhausting routine of smearing all visible skin with mousse or trying to ease his irritated eyes with drops. He plods downstairs, feeling pretty good about things, and spots Jem alone on the sofa, watching the morning news.

"Where's mum and dad?" he asks, flumping down on the sofa next to her.

"Out to the shops," she says with a shrug that means she's pretty sure her answer is right but didn't actually pay much attention to what they said before they left. Kieren hums in response and grabs a throw pillow, holding it in his lap and only turning half his attention to the telly.

"So...Simon, yeah?" Jem says suddenly.

Kieren looks at her and raises an eyebrow. She waggles her eyebrows at him and he shakes his head with a laugh.

"Bit old for you, in't he?"

"I don't think that really matters any more after you die," Kieren says, smiling. "I mean, I don't even know how old I am anymore. Do I go by my birth year still, or do I not count the years I was...?"

He trails off, not sure how to say, "in the ground, dead, before the rising" or "roaming around mindlessly eating people's brains".

Jem draws her bottom lip up in consideration. "Well...as much as I like the idea of being your older sister, I guess it's easier to just count it like always."

Kieren smiles and nods. They sit in a comfortable silence for a while before Jem pipes up again.

"So, with you and Simon, since you're both...I mean, can you even _have_ sex anymore?"

Kieren's jaw drops and he looks at her in horror. "Oh my god!" he cries as he throws his pillow at her. She bursts out laughing and puts up her arms to defend herself as Kieren tosses a couple more pillows her way. She grabs the pillows and jumps on him, trying to smother him. He just barely manages to throw her off — she's a lot stronger than she used to be. They finally resettle on the sofa, the pillows now safely tucked away on the side of Kieren away from Jem.

"I'm serious, though!" Jem insists. "I'm really curious how it works for PDS, I mean, there was the brothel, but all them were birds, yeah? Strictly speaking, they don't need to do much, do they? I wanna know how blokes do it, and you're the only PDS bloke I could possibly ask."

Kieren sighs and sinks a little lower into his seat. He's acting reluctant, and it's definitely an awkward subject to broach with his sister, but deep down he's kind of touched she would come to him about something both so personal and so specific to PDS, when before she could barely acknowledge it about him.

"Okay, well, first of all, Simon and I aren't there yet, _at all_. But when we are," his voice takes on a playful tone and leans closer conspiratorially. "You'll be the first to know."

She punches him in the shoulder.

He pauses before, "I dunno, though. I haven't really thought about that kinda stuff since I came back."

"It's been a year!"

"Well, there's been more important stuff going on, hasn't there?"

"Yeah, but you're a _boy_. If I think about sex a lot, god only knows how much boys must do to get so much crap about it."

Kieren shrugs. "I never really have, even before I died. It doesn't matter a lot to me. When I like a person, they're so much more than that to me, d'you know what I mean? I don't really care about the other stuff."

Jem looks curiously at him and he shrugs again, feeling self-conscious about expressing his indifference to something that's thought of as so inherently masculine. She smiles and pats him on the knee and says, "Well, as fun and enlightening as this has been, I guess I'll have to look elsewhere for answers about zombie boners."

"Jem! Never say that word in front of me again," Kieren groans, covering his face with his hands.

"What, 'zombie'?" Jem teases.

"Can I please be done talking about undead sex mechanics with my baby sister?" Kieren pleads from behind his fingers.

"Okay, I take it back, you're back to being my little bro. Maybe one day, your big sis'll tell you all about the birds and the bees."

Kieren laughs and rolls his eyes, shaking his head. He stares unseeingly at the telly for a while before saying, "I've been thinking about going to visit Amy. You wanna come?"

"Nah, you go," Jem says.

Kieren looks at her and they exchange small smiles before he gets up. "See you later, then."

Before he leaves, he grabs a jacket and pulls it on, mostly just out of habit. Instead of heading straight to the cemetery, he decides to stop off at the Save 'n' Shop to get Amy some sort of gift.

Wandering through the aisles, he looks at all the food and drinks packed on nearly every shelf. He spots a packet of crisps that used to be his favourite kind. He picks it up and looks at it, remembering the countless times he and Rick must've shared some of these. They suddenly sound really appetizing to him and he starts to keep walking down the aisle with the packet still in his hand before he realizes what he's doing and shoves it back on a shelf, quickly walking away.

In a small section near the back of the store, he finds old holiday merchandise on clearance. He sees an old zombie action figure and cringes. Next to it, there's a vampire plush doll that looks strikingly like Simon. Kieren laughs through his nose and picks it up. It's got the pale skin and dark lips and slicked back hair. The only difference is the little fangs poking out. It's small and cheaply made and really silly, but it's on sale for fifty pence and Kieren buys it. The cashier, an older lady with poker straight shoulder length grey hair and a stern look accentuated by her tired wrinkles, manages the transaction without uttering a single word to him. He stuffs the doll in his pocket and makes the short trek to the old cemetery.

Even from a distance, Kieren can tell as he approaches Amy's grave that something's off. The mound of dirt there looks a lot taller than before, and indeed Philip's tiger is nowhere to be seen. Kieren squats down and props the vampire doll against her headstone.

"I thought you'd find it funny," he says quietly with a small smile. He wonders if he's talking to an empty grave.

He stands up again and looks around. The place is still littered with police tape. He sighs deeply and feels really out of place, so he decides to just go back home.

Once he's nearly there, he sniffles and draws his jacket more tightly around himself against the cold. Then he stops dead in his tracks and realizes he feels cold. He sniffs again, and brings a hand to his nose. When he pulls it away, he sees black liquid glinting on his fingers.

"Oh, Jesus," he mutters to himself. He wipes at his nose and looks desperately back the way he came, as if it'll somehow hold answers for him. "Oh, Jesus," he repeats as he quickly starts back the way he came. For a second he thinks of going to Simon and telling him about this and the shaking. Then he thinks of consulting Dr Russo but finds the idea of him leaves more of a bad taste in his mouth these days. Before he knows it, Kieren's on Philip's doorstep, pounding on the door with one hand, plugging his nose up with the other.

Philip answers the door. His eyes flick down to the blackness smeared around his nose before he says, hushed, "What you doing here?"

"Listen, I've got to see your mum," Kieren says as he pushes past Philip and walks inside. Then he glances back and says, "No, you know what? You, too."

"Oh, hello again, Kieren," Shirley says from where she's sat on the sofa as he enters the living room. Her expression quickly turns to concern as she spots him clutching at his nose, trying to stem the flow. "Oh dear, what happened?"

"I, I dunno, I just—" Kieren tilts back his head as Shirley stands up and goes to the kitchen to grab some paper towels. Kieren takes them when she holds them out for him and mops up his face. "I was just walking, and I, I got cold, and..."

He looks back at Philip who's been hovering nearby, looking unsure.

"Oh, I don't think you're catching a cold, love," Shirley says sweetly in her best nurse-breaking-the-news-to-a-clueless-patient voice. "You see, PDS folks, they—"

"No, I haven't got _a_ cold!" Kieren says in frustration, and Shirley nods sagely. He looks at Philip desperately. "I felt the wind. I felt the cold wind blowing," he looks back at Shirley. "I'm not supposed to _feel!_ "

"Oh!" Shirley looks surprised and a little confused. "Oh, right, of course."

Kieren looks to Philip again. "Am I going through the same thing as her?"

Philip looks down at his hands as he wrings them together. "I, I don't...it _sounds_ like—"

"Philip?" Shirley looks at him, bewildered. "Philip, what's he talking about?"

"Um..."

"Phil, just tell her, it's fine," Kieren urges.

Philip nods several times. They move to sit around the kitchen table and Philip recounts to his mother all the things that were happening to Amy before she died. Shirley stares on in shocked fascination the whole time.

"Oh, dear..." she breathes at the end of the explanation. "Amy was coming to me about her odd symptoms but I...I had no idea, I was worried her medication wasn't _strong_ enough, I..."

She trails off, a hand coming up to her mouth as her eyes move around the room in thought. "So you're..." she looks to Kieren. "You're going through the same symptoms, then. Well, it only makes sense to assume you're—"

She cuts herself off as Kieren's eyebrows furrow in worry and his eyes drop to the table in front of him.

"Oh, but sweetheart, that's wonderful news! You're, well, you're turning human again, you're coming back to _life!_ "

Kieren fidgets uncomfortably. He knows he should be happy about this but it just feels so abstract to him. It feels distant and surreal, like it's happening to someone else in a TV programme or something.

"Yeah," is all he can say.


End file.
